A flat mop is a common floor cleaning tool. In current commercially available flat mops, a mop seat is designed to have a plate form in order to increase the cleaning area of the flat mop. However, in a current flat mop, a mop handle and a mop seat have a fixed design, in a way that the mop handle is incapable of moving levelly to the left and right relative to the mop seat. As such, when the flat mop is applied to cleaning locations such as small gaps and under the sofa, the flat mop may not truly enter these locations, hence disfavoring the cleaning process. In addition, when storing such current flat mop, a larger storage space is usually occupied also due to the fixed structure.
In view of the above, a mop, such as disclosed by the China Patent Application No. 201420631033.1, is provided by a manufacturer. The above mop includes a mop handle and a mop seat. The mop seat includes a joint below, and a sliding mechanism is provided below the joint. The sliding mechanism includes a sliding block and a strip-like elastic piece. An elastic protruding structure for coordinating and fastening with a notch of the joint is provided at each of left and right sides of the sliding block. The strip-like elastic piece is disposed in a second cavity. The mop seat is provided below the sliding mechanism, and includes a first groove. The first groove and the strip-like elastic piece are coordinated with each other to form a positioning structure.
In addition to the disclosure above, the U.S. Pat. No. 8,561,246 discloses a displaceable handle attachment. The displaceable handle attachment is installed in a displaceable frame of a mop head. The handle attachment is capable of moving in a guide groove on the frame along a displacement direction. The displaceable handle attachment includes a slider located in the guide groove, and a biasing means. The slider includes at least one engagement surface for frictional engagement with a respective cooperating surface of the guide groove. The biasing means has a biasing force that biases the engagement surface of the slider against the cooperating surface of the guide groove. By pressing downwards and separating the engagement surface of the slider from the cooperating surface of the guide groove, the handle attachment and the slider counteract the biasing force of the biasing means.
Although the above disclosed solution achieves the object of changing the form of the mop to a certain extent, conventional solutions nonetheless contain following issues. For example, in the U.S. Pat. No. 8,561,246, the movement of the handle attachment is limited through the biasing force of the slider and the guide groove. However, during a cleaning process, a user may unintentionally disengage the limitation of the handle attachment to cause the handle attachment to displace incorrectly and to affect the normal application of the disclosure. That is to say, the above disclosure is incapable of effectively stabilizing the handle attachment. In addition, the handle attachment becomes prone to damages when implemented through a biasing force, such that the lifecycle of the mop head may be shortened. Further, a conventional mop handle also suffer from other issues including being incapable of levelly moving to the right and left and occupying an excessive storage space. In the above disclosure, the positioning between the mop handle and the mop seat is primarily achieved using the strip-like elastic piece. The strip-like elastic piece not only can be quite easily worn out by the repeated sliding movements, but also likely causes wear of the groove. As a result, the mop handle and the mop seat may fail to be securely positioned.